February College Recruiting Newsletter 2022

Back to Recruiting Newsletters

Welcome to the Kings Hammer February College Recruiting Newsletter! The club is excited to work with you to accomplish all of your player’s goals for this upcoming calendar year, on and off of the soccer field. Each month, we will be providing this resource to not only help you navigate the craziness that is the college recruiting process, but also provide personal development materials and resources to assist in growing individually while living a more purpose and value-driven lifestyle. We hope you find value in this newsletter and are excited to assist in this exciting process for your family!

Creating a List of Schools

Whether you are just beginning your college search or have some experience under your belt, it is important to be intentional about what is important to you when selecting your future home. Before thinking about specific schools that you want to add to your list, it is critical to think about what factors may be important to you in your future home. Just as each college’s soccer program is unique; each campus, each environment, and each location of the colleges will provide different individuals with different experiences. Below are five factors to consider when creating your list of schools.

Location: Colleges and Universities of all divisions can be found in the biggest cities and the smallest towns. What type of environment will you be comfortable in; urban, rural, suburban…maybe each. Are grocery stores, restaurants, entertainment, and other activities available close, or farther away? These and other environmental factors should be thought about when creating your list of schools.

Campus Size: Are you looking for a school with thousands of students or hundreds? Are you looking for a campus where you take a bus to get from one side of campus to the other, or a campus where you can walk to your classes in 5 minutes? It is important to think about campus size and what you envision your college experience looking like before deciding which schools fit your desired size demands.

Degrees of Study: Do you have a dream career path after college soccer? While pursuing dreams of becoming a professional soccer player are great, it is important to think about life without soccer as well. When thinking about potential career options and majors that may interest you, find out if the schools you are researching offer majors and areas of study that match your academic interests.

Cost of Attendance: When creating your list of schools in most situations, it is important to consider the cost of the schools you may be looking into. Depending on where you are in your search, you may have no idea if the schools you are targeting will end up supporting you with athletic financial aid. However, by looking at each institution’s website, you are able to get a better understanding of tuition, housing, books, and other costs that are associated with the school.

Distance from Home: When leaving the comfort and safety of your parent’s home, do you want to have accessibility to return when you are having a bad day? Or are you ready to open up your wings and fly to a faraway location? When creating a list of schools, think about the maximum distance you are willing to be from your hometown (or for some of you, it might be the minimum distance you want to be close to home!) This will help you to narrow your list to realistic opportunities for you.

Hopefully, you were able to pick up on the theme of the above factors: None of these involve soccer! While the soccer program and your success at the next level on the field will play a massive role in your college experience, the reality is a large majority of your time will be spent off the soccer field in college! It is just as, if not more important to make sure the schools you are looking into and adding to your list fit you not only from a soccer perspective but from a holistic perspective as well. Creating a list of what is important for you and what is non-negotiable in your search and your future home, will help you to alleviate some of the stress of narrowing down what seems to be unlimited options for your college experience.

Here is a link to a webinar from Sports Recruits that talks about finding the “Right Fit” in a college: Sports Recruits-Building Your Target List of Schools

Personal Development – Identifying Core Values

When thinking about what is important to you, it is critical to understand what are the things, traits, and qualities that you find to matter the most. This can be related to how you want to be perceived by others, who you want to surround yourself with, as well as the things that you find to be most important to be the best version of yourself. Having core values allow you to be your authentic self while maintaining guiding principles and qualities that help you in times of internal conflict. Below are some examples of core values that one may identify or relate to:

Acceptance

Achievement

Adventure

Autonomy

Beauty

Challenge

Collaboration

Communication

Commitment

Competence

Competition

Compassion

Cooperation

Courage

Creativity

Curiosity

Courtesy

Decisiveness

Dependability

Discipline

Diversity

Effectiveness

Empathy

Empowering

Equality

Excitement

Family

Forgiveness

Fitness

Flexibility

Friendship

Freedom

Fun

Generosity

Growth

Helpfulness

Happiness

Harmony

Health

Honesty/Integrity

Hope

Humor

Independence

Innovation

Impact/Difference

Justice

Knowledge

Love/Affection

Loyalty

Manners

Mindfulness

Open-mindedness

Patience

Power

Prosperity

Purpose

Quality

Recognition

Respect

Responsibility

Risk-taking

Security

Service

Simplicity

Spirituality/Faith

Strength

Self-Acceptance

Self-Esteem

Self-Control

Teamwork

Tolerance

Trust

Take 20-30 minutes and reflect on these words. What do they mean to you? Which are the most important? After doing so, try to narrow your list your personal core values (this will be harder than you think). Create a list of your five core values and describe what they mean to you and why they are important. Keep this list somewhere accessible to you and use it as a resource when needed. This list can change throughout your life but understanding who you are and what is important to you will help you to lead a value-driven life and ultimately have peace of mind in the decisions and choices you make!